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Spreadable Media: Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture
Spreadable Media: If It Doesn't Spread, It's Dead Simply put, [http://spreadablemedia.org/ Spreadable Media] by [http://henryjenkins.org/ Henry Jenkins], Sam Ford, and Joshua Green suggest that "If it doesn’t spread, it’s dead." Following up on the influential "Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide", ''Spreadable Media'' challenges the prevailing metaphors and frameworks used to describe contemporary media. From biological metaphors such as “memes” and “viral” to the concept of “Web 2.0” and the popular notion of “influencers", we gain a new perspective on these issues in society today. Spreadable Media examines the nature of audience engagement, the environment of participation, how appraisal creates value, and the transnational flows at the heart of these phenomena. It delineates the elements that make content more spreadable and highlights emerging media business models built for a world of participatory circulation. The book also explores the internal tensions companies face as they adapt to the new communication reality, and argues for the need to shift from “hearing” to “listening” in corporate culture. Drawing on examples from film, music, games, comics, television, transmedia storytelling, advertising, and public relations industries, among others—from both the U.S. and around the world—the authors illustrate the contours of our current media environment. They highlight the vexing questions content creators must tackle and the responsibilities we all face as citizens in a world where many of us regularly circulate media content. Written for any and all of us who actively create and share media content, Spreadable Media provides a clear understanding of how people are spreading ideas and the implications these activities have for business, politics, and everyday life.[http://spreadablemedia.org/about-the-book/ http://sp][[Category:Important Quotes]][http://spreadablemedia.org/about-the-book/ readablemedia.org/about-the-book/] The authors unfold and unpack their concept of a Networked Culture throughout the text. As participants and audiences actively engage on social platforms, their intake and willingness to share certain types of content may empower others to do the same, while perhaps discrediting others. An example would be our contemporary version on ''online'' ''activism. '' Spreadability "Spreadability" is the potential - both technical and cultural - for audiences to share content for their own purposes (2). It refers to the technical resources that make it easier to circulate some kinds of content than others, the economic structures that support or restrict circulation, the attributes of a media text that might appeal to a community's motivation for sharing material, and the social networks that link people through the exchange of meaningful bytes (4). Meanwhile, "stickiness refers to the need to create content that attracts audience attention and engagement." pg. 4 " [It] recognizes the importance of the social connections among individuals, connections increasingly made visible (and amplified) by social media platforms."pg 6 "Spreadability emphasizes producing content in easy-to-share formats, such as the embed codes that YouTube procides, which make it easier to spread videos acoss the Internet, and encouraging points to that coent in a variety of places." pg. 6 Why Media Spreads ''"When it comes to spreadability, not all content is created equal." ''pg 198 '' '' How does Media Spread? ''"In a gift economy, circulated texts say something about participants' perceptions of both the giver and the reciever; we all choose to share materials we value and anticipate others will value." ''pg 199'' '' Quotes " [It] recognizes the importance of the social connections among individuals, connections increasingly made visible (and amplified) by social media platforms."pg 6 "The key to stickiness is putting material in a centralized location, drawing people to it, and keeping them there indefinitely in ways that best benefit the site's analytics." pg 6 "While stickiness may provide the prevailing logic for the creation of online business models, any content or destination that has gained relevance with audiences online has done so through processes of spreadability, whether authorized or not." pg 7 "Stickiness acts as a measure of how interested an audience member is in a media text" pg 9 "...This set of social and cultural practices, and the related technological innovations which grew up around them, constitute what we call a "networked cultural." These cultural practices were certainly not created by new technologies." pg 12 "The media industries understand that culture is becoming more participatory , that the rules are being rewritten and relationships between producers and their audiences are in flux." pg 37 "The innovations, and struggles, of participatory culture that take place within broad interplay between top-down institutional and bottom-up social forces have shaped the spread of media within and across culture." pg 37 " It is crucial to always be cognizant that not everyone has equal access to the technologies and to the skills needed to deploy them." pg 40 "As a medium gets faster, it gets more emotional. We feel faster than we think, [...] Twitter makes us empathize. It makes us apart of it. Even if it's just retweeting, you're aiding the goal that dissidents have always sought: the awareness that the outside world is paying attention is really valuable." pg 42 "In theory, Web 2.0 companies relinquish a certain degree of control to its users." pg 49 "New technologies enable audiences to exert much greater impact on circulation than ever before, but they also enable companies to police once-private behavior that is taking on greater public dimensions." pg 54 "The moral certainty shaping the reactions of such groups to debates about business models, terms of service, or the commercialization of content reflect how audiences may be more empowered than we expect to challenge corporate policies, especially as they gain greater and easier access to communication platforms which facilitate their working through differences and developing shared norms." pg 54 "...Web 2.0 companies- and neoliberal economics more generally-seek to integrate the social and economic in ways that make it hard to distinguish between them." pg 63 "Commercial media, for the better, and for worse, provide much of the source material for our modern language of communication, The current moment is pergaps less about overthrow of this established modality of common culture, but more a plea for recognition of a new layer of communication and cultural sharing. At best, this is about fol, amatuer, niche and non-market communities of cultural production, mobilizing, critiquing, remixing commercial media and functioning as a test bed fpr radically new cultural forms. At worst, this is about the fragmenting of common culture or the dexay of shared standards of quality, proffesionalis, and accountability." pg 232-233 "Consumers can become overwhelmed when choices are poorly organized, and they may actually reduce their purchases as result." pg 242 "''Motivating and facilitating sharing''. The current media environment has become increasingly conducive to the spread of media content." pg 298 "The shape of out culture, thank goodness is still under transition, and-as a consequence is still possible for us to collectively struggle to shape the terms of a spreadable media environment and to forge a media environment that is more inclusive, more dynamic, and more participatory than before." pg 305 "Piracy, Liang argues, has historically been a way to close those gaps created by the uneven and unequal circulation of culture, allowing entry into contemporary conversations to which marginalized populations might otherwise be excluded." pg 265 "Friedman sees the development of the Internet browser as akin to the end of the Cold War or the outsourcing of labor from developed countries to the developing world: a flattening force which enables goods and content to move more fluidly across national borders, ultimately increasing the influence of transnational capitalism in the everyday lives of people around the world." pg 284 "The free and open sharing of content can provide a valuable research tool for these producers, allowing them to see where their texts spread and thus build business models that might map against those pockets of audience interest"(pg 235) "We think audiences do important work beyond what is being narrowly defined as "production" here"( pg 154) "Spreadable Media expands the power of the people to help share their everyday environment, but it does not guarantee any particular outcomes. Nevertheless, we believe these processes may hold the potential for social and cultural change." pg 294 Conclusion Questions to Consider 1. In the conclusion of the book the authors state: "Perhaps the most impactful aspect of a spreadable media environment, though, is the way in which we all now play a vital role in the sharing of media texts" (Jenkins, Ford, and Green 304). Given this statement how much of a role do we have of sharing different media texts? How are you influenced by the media and how is the media influenced by its audience and the public? 2. The book discusses the practice of artists making their works available for free with a potential donation. How do you consume works produced by others, especially music? Do you purchase each song? What motivates you to purchase an artist's music? 3. After completing this book, does it change the way you think about media and the spread of it? 4. How has our new abilities to evaluate information and voice an opinion changed the way figureheads and representatives of insitutions behave? Politicians? How has the internet and new social media platforms given the people their voice back? References